1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications equipment, and, in particular, to enclosures for housing and protecting telecommunications equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A building entrance protector (BEP) is an enclosure used to house and protect telecommunications equipment. For example, a BEP may house the components used to interface between a multi-wire cable providing telephone service to a building and the twisted pairs of copper wire for individual telephones distributed throughout the building. These interface components may include splicing connectors used to break out pairs of wires from a multi-wire cable, as well as electrical isolation interface components, such as protector panels used to receive high-voltage/high-current plug-in protectors, and connectors, such as insulation displacement connectors (IDCs), used to terminate twisted pairs from individual telephones. The BEP may have two or more hinged pieces that define one or more different compartments within the BEP for such functions as breaking out twisted pairs of wires from the multi-wire cable, connecting the twisted pairs to electrical isolation components, connecting the electrical isolation components to IDC connectors, and terminating twisted pairs at the IDC connectors.
FIG. 1A shows a conventional building entrance protector 100, which is adapted to be configured with a number of wire troughs, such as wire trough 102 shown in FIG. 1B. Wire trough 102, which can be mounted within a channel 104 in a wall of BEP 100, is used to retain in an orderly manner wires connecting electrical hardware inside BEP 100 to external electrical hardware. For example, twisted pairs from telephones may be retained by wire troughs 102 for termination at IDC connectors within BEP 100. Such wire troughs help prevent crimping or "guillotining" of the wires when the lid of BEP 100 is closed. Unfortunately, if certain tension is applied to the wires while the lid of BEP 100 is open, the wire trough may be inadvertently removed from its position within the wall channel. In addition to being a nuisance to the person working on equipment within BEP 100, this can result in damage to the wires themselves, which may require costly and inefficient re-wiring of components.